It’s the last Experiment Chronicle for 2016! It’s been a pleasure being your guinea pig for all things work, play, and rest related.

Here, I’m going to update you on my previous experiments and how I would rate them on a 1-5 scale. The scale is based on whether or not I’ve kept up with each experiment and whether I believe the results were worth the work. Not all of the experiments were successes, but I definitely learned a lot! Let’s get to the rundown:

Work

Work experiments were full of productivity and learning/studying strategies with a dash of money-making experiments for good measure. (Bolded items are the highest rated.)

Life Balance To-Do List: 4 – While I have not kept up with it, I still use the Life Balance wheel to pin down life areas I’m majorly neglecting. I’d recommend trying this if you’re looking for a unique, well-structured to-do list.

Writing down productivity wins: 4 – I still do this from time to time, whenever I’m having a sluggish day, productivity-wise. Would recommend if you go between having super productive and procrastination-despair-pit days.

Consigning clothes: 2 – This did not go well. However, if you’re still interested, online selling tends to net better profits.

30-minutes of learning a day: 3 – It’s a great challenge for school breaks. It helps keep learning in the forefront of your mind but it’s a bit much to keep up with during the semester.

Gamification: 3 – This is a good system for balancing productivity and self-care. Or, it’s great if you’re a very structured person. I, personally, prefer the loosely structured “done lists” method (below).

20 pages of textbook reading: 3 – I break down textbook readings by 10 pages instead of 20 pages now. I recommend this if you have trouble hitting time goals for studying and would prefer something more quantifiable.

1-3-5 to-do lists: 2 – It’s a flexible to-do list and it’s fun. However, I had a tendency to think way too much about what could be categorized as what instead of actually doing the work.

Done lists: 5 – No to-do lists are allowed and instead you write down your productivity wins. This was the experiment with the most impact on my work habits. I went from a die-hard to-do lister to scrapping to-do lists completely. I don’t use them as a crutch anymore and my inbox/calendar catches everything.

Pomodoro Technique: 4 – I use this off and on. It’s helpful for activities that are best done in chunks instead of one go (problem sets, reviewing notes, etc.) to keep up your concentration.

3R Method: 1 – This was a total bomb. I didn’t remember anything after using this method. I’d recommend it if you’re good at remembering auditory information.

Unorthodox Social Media Ban: 5 – Absolutely recommend. It was a 1000x easier to get off text-based social media knowing that I could replace that time with fiction reading.

Rest

What kind of guinea pig would I be if I didn’t try to lifehack exercise, diet, and sleep?

Phone ban from 9pm-9am: 2 – My unorthodox social media ban did way more for me getting off my phone at night than a strict time rule ever did. Setting up multiple conditions to complete one rule doesn’t usually stick.

Eat a plant a meal: 5 – Love this. “Keep it simple, stupid” at its best. Eat a fruit or vegetable at every meal. It’s a good way to be a bit healthier without any fancy footwork.

100% Calcium: 2 – It went well but the amount of planning/researching isn’t going to happen for every nutrient.

7-Minute Workouts: 3 – This is a good reminder to do things for your health even if they’re tiny. I haven’t kept up with it and instead walk around after dinner like a grandma as my “tiny workout.”

10,000 Steps: 4 – This was an experiment that was a lot harder to fulfill than I thought it would be. I still have a pedometer app on my phone and will take the stairs or the long way around just to add on more steps but I don’t go out of my way to hit 10,000 steps exactly.

Sleep like a normal person: 1 – Nope. This didn’t happen. I never managed to get 8 hours of sleep. I have a pretty erratic sleep schedule so I’ll probably focus on just getting the same amount of sleep every night before I try to jump it to 8 hours.